About

Genome Biology publishes outstanding research in all areas of biology and biomedicine studied from a genomic and post-genomic perspective.

The current impact factor is 13.214* and the journal is ranked 4th among research journals in the Genetics and Heredity category by Thomson Reuters. Genome Biology is the highest ranked open access journal in the category.

Our team of highly trained in-house Editors works with our Editorial Board of leading international experts to ensure that the journal is at the cutting edge of both scientific advances and community standards. The Editors engage regularly with researchers at conferences and institute visits.

Hospitable publishing process. The journal is dedicated to excellent service to authors, reviewers and readers. When you submit your manuscript to Genome Biology, you can be confident that the status of your manuscript is will be constantly monitored and handling Editors will proactively communicate with you to give updates on progress.

High article visibility. Articles published in Genome Biology achieve high visibility through our engaging homepage, press releases of articles of especially broad interest, and our highly active Twitter account, which has over 46,000 followers.

bioRxiv transfers. Genome Biology is happy to consider manuscripts that have been, or will be, posted on a preprint server. For a trial period, authors are also able to submit their manuscripts to Genome Biology directly from bioRxiv, without having to re-upload files.

Co-submissions to other BMC ‘flagship’ journals. If a paper is potentially appropriate in scope for Genome Biology and either Genome Medicine or BMC Biology, authors have the opportunity to submit a manuscript for joint consideration at two of these journals at the same time. For a paper to be considered as a co-submission, the authors should upload their manuscript to one of the two journals and note in their cover letter that they would like a co-consideration with the second journal. Each journal will evaluate the paper independently. If both journals decide to send the paper for review, the editors will select reviewers together for a peer review process that evaluates the manuscript for both journals, and will make independent decisions based on reviewers’ feedback. For any questions, please contact Genome Biology editorial.

Flexible formatting. To facilitate the submission process, we are flexible with regard to the format, style and length of initial submissions. If it is more convenient to the authors, manuscripts can be uploaded as a single PDF or a Microsoft Word file with high resolution figures, figure legends and supplemental information included. The cover letter is provided separately during the submission process. Journal-specific formatting, which is described below, is required only once manuscripts reach the later stages of the publication process.

Scoop protection. Genome Biology offers "scoop protection", meaning that if other researchers publish similar findings after submission, or post them on a preprint server, this will not be a reason for rejection. However, the initial submission can still be rejected on other grounds.

*The Impact Factor (IF) is just one measure used for evaluating the impact of research. For further information on the IF and alternative metrics used to measure the impact of research, please click here.

Aims and scope

Genome Biology covers all areas of biology and biomedicine studied from a genomic and post-genomic perspective. Content includes research, new methods and software tools, and reviews, opinions and commentaries. Areas covered include, but are not limited to: sequence analysis; bioinformatics; insights into molecular, cellular and organismal biology; functional genomics; epigenomics; population genomics; proteomics; comparative biology and evolution; systems and network biology; genome editing and engineering; genomics of disease; and clinical genomics. All content is open access immediately on publication.

Open access

All articles published by Genome Biology are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers. Further information about open access can be found here.

As authors of articles published in Genome Biology you are the copyright holders of your article and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the BioMed Central license agreement.

For those of you who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, BioMed Central can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact us if further information is needed.

Indexing services

All articles published in Genome Biology are included in:

Biological Abstracts

BIOSIS

CABI

CABS

CAS

Citebase

Embase

EmBiology

Global Health

MEDLINE

OAIster

PubMed

PubMed Central

Science Citation Index

Science Citation Index Expanded

SCImago

Scopus

SOCOLAR

Zetoc

Zoological Record

The full text of all articles is deposited in digital archives around the world to guarantee long-term digital preservation. You can also access all articles published by BioMed Central on SpringerLink.

Article-processing charges

Open access publishing is not without costs.Genome Biology therefore levies an article-processing charge of £1900/$2975/€2420 for each article accepted for publication. Short Reports have an article-processing charge of £1670/$2128/€1865 for each accepted article. If the corresponding author's institution participates in our open access membership program, some or all of the publication cost may be covered (more details available on the membership page). We routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries. For other countries, article-processing charge waivers or discounts are granted on a case-by-case basis to authors with insufficient funds. Authors can request a waiver or discount during the submission process. For further details, see our article-processing charge page.

BioMed Central provides a free open access funding support service to help authors discover and apply for article processing charge funding. Visit our OA funding and policy support page to view our list of research funders and institutions that provide funding for APCs, and to learn more about our email support service.

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published in their journal. You can read more about the peer-review process here.

Genome Biology operates a single-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous. The benefit of single-blind peer-review is that it is the traditional model of peer review that many reviewers are comfortable with, and it facilitates a dispassionate critique of a manuscript.

Genome Biology considers articles that are scientifically valid and a useful contribution to the field. Articles must also be of interest to a broad readership of biologists and/or represent an exceptional advance within a specific field. Manuscripts are initially assessed by our experienced team of in-house editors, and those that are deemed of interest are sent for peer review. Peer reviewers primarily assess the scientific content and coherence of articles, but are also asked to comment on interest levels and advance.

Manuscripts submitted to Genome Biology are assessed by our experienced in-house editorial team, who take all decisions based on an extensive and rigorous peer review process by academic experts. Editorial Board Members may provide advice on manuscripts submitted but are not involved in the final decisions. The overall editorial responsibility for the journal is with the Chief Editor.

Editorial policies

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Citing articles in Genome Biology

Articles in Genome Biology should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number.

Appeals and complaints

If you wish to appeal a rejection or make a complaint you should, in the first instance, contact the Editor who will provide details of the journal's complaints procedure. For complaints that cannot be resolved with the Editor, the authors should contact the Publisher.

Why publish your article in Genome Biology

High visibility

Genome Biology's open access policy allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to a wide, global audience.

Speed of publication

Genome Biology offers a fast publication schedule whilst maintaining rigorous peer review; all articles must be submitted online, and peer review is managed fully electronically (articles are distributed in PDF form, which is automatically generated from the submitted files). Articles will be published with their final citation after acceptance, in both fully browsable web form, and as a formatted PDF.

Flexibility

Online publication in Genome Biology gives you the opportunity to publish large datasets, large numbers of color illustrations and moving pictures, to display data in a form that can be read directly by other software packages so as to allow readers to manipulate the data for themselves, and to create all relevant links (for example, to PubMed, to sequence and other databases, and to other articles).

Promotion and press coverage

Articles published in Genome Biology are included in article alerts and regular email updates. Some may be highlighted on Genome Biology’s pages and on the BioMed Central homepage.

In addition, articles published in Genome Biology may be promoted by press releases to the general or scientific press. These activities increase the exposure and number of accesses for articles published in Genome Biology. A list of articles recently press-released by journals published by BioMed Central is available here.

Copyright

As an author of an article published in Genome Biology you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work (for further details, see the BioMed Central license agreement).

For further information about the advantages of publishing in a journal from BioMed Central, please click here.